The present invention relates to front-ends and rear-ends of vehicles, and more particularly relates to an integrated bumper energy absorber and fascia-supporting component.
The front-end structure (and rear-end structure) of vehicles are relatively complex assemblies and include numerous parts and pieces. There are many reasons for this, including both styling and functional reasons. One functional reason is because the vehicle front and rear-end structures and associated bumper systems must not only be able to resist damage upon low-energy impacts, but must also allow the bumper to stroke, crush, and absorb substantial energy upon high-energy impacts, while still permitting the front-end structure to anchor and uniformly support fascia in and around the bumper, the headlights, and grill areas during normal vehicle operation. Typically, this is accomplished by using a variety of separate brackets, flanges, and braces that support the fascia in various areas, but with the bumper reinforcement beam and bumper system structurally separated from other front-end components and mounted to different parts of the vehicle frame and body so that the bumper reinforcement beam can stroke without damaging other front-end components. However, it is desirable to minimize weight and simplify assembly, which is difficult to do when there are multiple parts. Concurrently, it is not clear from prior art how to maintain the separate function of a bumper system and a fascia-supporting system, while providing a single part that satisfies parts of the functions of both the bumper and fascia-supporting systems.
It is desirable to reduce a number of the parts and pieces that provide the front-end structure of modern vehicles, while still maintaining structural stability of a front of the vehicle and a low total weight. It is also desirable to integrate and consolidate features and functions of the present front-end components into fewer parts and pieces to reduce a total cost and complexity of the assembly, while at the same time reducing assembly time. In particular, it is desirable to incorporate some of the bumper components and functions into other front-end structural components, while still maintaining effective independent operation of an associated bumper system.
Accordingly, an apparatus is desired solving the aforementioned problems and having the aforementioned advantages.